documenting my journey from a stable, professional career to a traveler around the world

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Day 133 - Sauraha back to Kathmandu

It's been a while since I didn't have to wake up in the early wee hours to catch a bus! We had time for a comfortable breakfast before heading on a bus back to Kathmandu at 9:30am. The bus was rather comfortable for Nepalese standards, a notch above in quality compared to the other two buses I'd already taken.

The only problem was the accidents that caused traffic jams a couple times on our journey. What should have taken maybe 4 hours took 7 hours total. The drivers in Nepalese are pretty wreckless, even though most of the buses have slogans on their bumpers saying “drive safely.” Cars try to pass other vehicles on windy roads around mountains and end up crashing at blind spots when they don't anticipate another car coming along ahead. There was one head-on collision that I saw with a compact car and a bus. Hopefully nobody got hurt!

The entire day was almost completely spent on the bus. When we arrived in Kathmandu, we headed to a backpacker hostel about 30 minutes away from Thamel, the main tourist area. It was a good decision to get away from the noise and pollution in the area. It was also nice to get away from all the touts trying to sell us guesthouse rooms, taxi rides, trekking tours, hashish, and marijuana. The hostel, called the Sparkling Turtle, was Canadian owned, and just opened 2 months ago so the place was pretty spotless. The best thing about it was that one of the owners was a former master chef, and every night, cooks special Nepalese dinners. I had some of the best food in a while. A good meal really makes me smile afterwards, and I don't think I smiled as big as I did today in over a month! We had a buffalo stew with pasta and a cucumber salad. So delicious!